Shadows Upon Time by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wild, impressive ride.

I'm on the record for having issues with the first novel, it feeling rather derivative as a straight SF title, but after a few books in, it establishes itself as a monumentally good SF series. Not only great characters and plotting and SFnal ideas in a grand panoramic worldbuilding backdrop, but an adventure both deep, varied, and genuinely fascinating.

A few more books in, and it just gets deeper and mythical and even god-like in scope and adventure.

And then, by this book, the last, it managed to floor me.

This is a great SF series. Period. I can easily ignore the shades of the greats that were on full display in the first book--because Ruocchio twisted it all into his very own beautiful creation by the end.

And this is a genuine end. Full circle from where it began, with ALL the glory it promised and so much more.

And the tragedy.

Damn it. I really hate the tragic parts. I know it makes for a deeper story, but if only I could have stopped at the right point... I wouldn't have such a heavy heart.

It's like stopping Dune at book one. You could ignore the deeper tragedy and sit in the dark glory. But life and good art is never really that clean. And neither is this. Indeed, we were always warned what kind of story it would be, and yet we find the true heights and lows, nevertheless.

Sigh.

Truly delicious. It has just about everything SF has to offer, too. A full course meal with desert. :)



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